The scavenger hunt is a common game played at summer camp or youth events. Each team of players is given a list of items that they must collect and the first team to successfully complete their list wins the prize. A more difficult version of the scavenger hunt is for the designer of the game to leave a clue at the first location, then the team of players must interpret the clue to find the next place, where another clue awaits. If successful, the team which correctly figures out the clues will reach the last location, and win the game. The appeal of such a hunt is the fascination in decoding each clue in order to reach the next clue. I devised such a hunt for a little girl who needed something stimulating to do, and found out that even a simple game is a lot of work!
Likewise, God has left us many clues as to how He can fill the space that He has made in each of our lives that only He can fill. The void in the hearts of people often spurs them on to seek clues in all sorts of other places: a variety of religious practices, philosophy, self-help books, the guidance of highly successful people, and so on. The writer to the Hebrews offers the solution to filling this empty hole in our hearts.
“And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, ‘This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’ Then he says, ‘I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.’ And when sins are forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.” (Hebrews 10:15-18 NLT)
God is offering a transformation from the inside out in which He completely changes hearts and writes His law on them, filling that hole. This is no list of regular sacrifices to follow for sin’s covering, but a complete once-and-for-all forgiveness of sin — so thorough that God can say that He doesn’t even remember our sins any more! It’s as if when Jesus died for our forgiveness of sin, He piled the whole lot of it onto His shoulders and chucked it into the grave — that could not hold Him — and those sins can never rise again to accuse us any more. We are no longer on probation, because past sin has no part in how God deals with us today.
Are you searching for clues as to what should fill that big space in your heart, or what should give meaning and validation to your life? Turn to the Lord and recognize that He has written His own answers to the clues that He has given, ones that you will never have to guess about, and which will lead you to the greatest prize of all: eternal life with Him.
Prayer: Thank You, dear Lord, for the new covenant created in Your Son, and the holy law that You write on our hearts when You fill that God-shaped hole. Thank You that Jesus loved us enough to sacrifice His own life to save ours. Amen.
Copyright © 2022, by Shirley Moulton <shirley_moulton@yahoo.ca>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Reprinted from PresbyCan with author’s permission
